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Alligator Farm's new Komodo dragon moves outdoors

Gently but firmly, reptile specialists at St. Augustine Alligator Farm & Zoological Park walked their new 8-foot-long, 9-year-old Komodo dragon into an outdoor enclosure Saturday morning, enticing him forward with a quail on a snake stick.

The dragon, named Tujah, was moved slowly and carefully because the bite of any monitor lizard contains dozens of species of virulent septic bacteria. Their hunting method is biting their prey when it passes by and then waiting for the victim to die of an infection.

Kevin Torregrosa, curator of reptiles, said the weather has now become warm enough for Tujah to leave his interior enclosure.

The outside enclosure contains logs, vegetation and rocks — enough to make a dragon feel at home. And it’s designed with thick glass walls so fascinated children and adults can get face to face with a real dragon without being bitten or eaten.

Tujah’s enclosure is the same one where his distant relative, Krakatoa, lived until he died of a viral infection in 2010.

Curators say that Tujah, though the same length and weight of Krakatoa, is stronger.

While Tujah is outside, the interior enclosure will be renovated, Torregrossa said.

Tujah’s name in the Indonesian language means “seven,” because he was the seventh monitor lizard hatched from a clutch at the Toronto Zoo. Baby Tujah then was sent to a Minnesota zoo, the St. Louis Zoo and the Denver Zoo before coming here.

Torregrossa said Tujah was bred once at the Denver Zoo. Close by, in a nearby enclosure, awaits Tambora, Tujah’s future mate.

Tambora is the name of an Indonesian island.

John Brueggen, director of the Alligator Farm, found it highly interesting that Tambora was also the seventh egg born from her clutch.

“We’re going to match them together in October,” he said.

Tujah had never been in the outdoor enclosure before but walked in like he was the king.

Flicking his tongue, he smelled every corner, every dirt hole, every log. Then he found two quail placed there to encourage his approval of his new home.

Torregrossa said the two monitors will see (and presumably smell) one another in close but separate quarters long before they are introduced in October.

“The breeding can actually be fairly violent,” he said, explaining that some males grab the female’s head with their mouth. Also, both can scratch one another in the heat of passion.

“We’re hoping he is going to be gentle,” Torregrossa said. “He was the last time.”

According to crocodile biologist Jen Brueggen, once born, Komodo babies are not safe.

“Cannibalism can happen,” she said. “They really are opportunistic (feeders).”

The Alligator Farm is raising money to support a monitor research facility in Indonesia.

Tujah barely looked at the small crowd of humans looking through the glass. He swallowed both quail whole, then raised his head as if posing for photographs.

Torregrossa said: “They eat all kinds of meat: quail, rats, mice, chicks, even road kill. They can eat 90 percent of their body weight in a sitting. We don’t feed them 90 percent, but he can do it.”

Brueggen said Komodo dragons are strong swimmers and go from island to island.

“A female can lay fertile eggs that can produce only females that are clones of her,” he said.

Watching and photographing Tujah’s exploration closely was Audrey Bublitz, who said she’s “in heaven” at the Alligator Farm.

“Tujah is amazing,” she said. “I’ve always been drawn to the alligators, but this Komodo dragon has really captured my heart. When I heard he was going to be moved, I said, ‘I’ve got to be there!’”